New York City Treating The Funny Bone

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Often it's just as important to reach the parents as it is to entertain the youngsters. One morning Christensen peeked into a floor lounge and saw a woman sitting in a chair, reading a magazine; a man -- perhaps her husband -- was on the couch, intent on a novel. Stubs asked gently, "Mind if I come in? I need to catch up on some paperwork." He sat on the couch and starting ripping sheets of legal paper off a pad, crumpling them up and stuffing them into his doctor's bag. He soon piqued the adults' curiosity. "Office work, you know," Stubs offered. "Who says clowns are just for kids?" the woman -- now all smiles -- said to the man.

Of course, the clowning isn't always well received. When leading a visitor into one Babies Hospital room, Christensen was greeted with frantic wails. Coattails flying, he rushed out of the room. "That's my cue to leave," he explained. And as with any audience, some patients just refuse to see the humor. Christensen once paid a call on a teenage boy who was sitting by a window with his head lowered. He kept it down as Stubs conducted his exam. "I asked, 'Have you ever had your funny bone examined?' " Christensen recalls. "He said nothing. 'Does your nose ever turn red?' No answer. 'Are you ticklish?' And then, with his head still down, the boy asked, 'Are you retarded?' I said no. 'Then why don't you act like a normal doctor?' I said, - 'Because I'm not a normal doctor.' He looked up, saw my costume and sighed, 'Oh, God.' "

Christensen tries not to let the occasional rejection deter him. "I can hear no, see no, in someone's face," he says. "I don't have to push to make it a yes. That's not my job." He says he learned an important lesson from his dying brother: "My responsibility was not to save him but to love him and give what I could. My responsibility is to love the children, to give joy and celebration, not to make them accept it. That's their choice." Fortunately for all concerned, most do accept the gentle medicine of Dr. Stubs with gratitude -- and giggles.